Meng-Hsuan Lee

Meng-Hsuan Lee 李孟瑄 joined the PhD program in 2018. He studies 19th and 20th-century architecture and urbanism. His dissertation, Shop-House, Verandah-Arcade, Decorated Façade: An Excavation of Commercial Architecture in Japanese Colonial Taiwan, examines a dialectical history of planning and vernacular architecture, and the emergence of capitalism in Taiwan since c. 1860. Broadly, he considers planning and regulation techniques, the “contact zones” of colonialism, histories and theories of ornament, and media archaeology.

Prior to joining Columbia, Meng received his M.A. in Humanities (art history) from the University of Chicago, where he wrote his master’s thesis examining the politics of urban memory surrounding Shih-Shih South Village 四四南村, an architectural preservation project in Taipei. Previously, he received his B.A. in Drama and Theatre from National Taiwan University, where he also worked as a scenic designer.